A WONDERFUL MIRACLE....CORNBREAD!

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AND THANKSGIVING DRESSING!
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If you think hamburgers are miracles---what about cornbread?! It is a heavenly food sent to Earth by the Creator! (Anything made of corn is good, isn't it?) Who knows, cornbread may have been the "manna" in the Old Testament. Did they have Clabber Girl baking powder then?

What if you lived overseas? Some countries do not have corn bread. You think? Yes, read the very interesting old book by actress Anne Baxter ("INTERMISSION"), about her life in Australia.

Can you imagine, in your worst nightmares, going through life and NEVER eating cornbread? I shudder to think about it! Shouldn't we Southerners send "cornbread missionaries" to our beloved (and diet-wise wayward) brothers and sisters in the North? It probably wouldn't do any good---they wouldn't believe. Come closer, my reader....(I've even heard that instead of cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving, they have a stuffing,,,a concoction...containing oysters...yes...Sh-hh-h) My wife has to make extra dressing at TG and parcel little containers out to some of her dear Northern friends, who are closet cornbread dressing  eaters!

Let me set a scene for you, which will illustrate the importance of and the necessity for corn bread. It is midsummer circa 1950 and I am up at 4:35 a.m. at sunrise. I have been plowing, driving a Wheatland (BIG) Orange Case Tractor since 6:00 a.m. on our farm near Ranchvale. I'm pulling a 22 1/2 foot one-way plow. The day, the dust, the sun, the heat, the hours, and the tractor drone on. About 11:30 I begin to get thirsty, tired, sleepy, and hungry. My face, eyes, and nose are filled with dust, slowly rising and hanging in there with me and my rig. Bored gnats, as if looking for companionship, have been in my face all morning.

Yesterday, on that farm, was "Vienna Sausage Day," you know, Ritz crackers, cheese, pickle, ketchup for dipping, a piece of onion, and maybe some pork 'n beans.

Today is the BIGGIE. My dear Mother, has cooked all morning and there she comes on the county road, dust swirling behind her for fifty yards! The world may have forgotten us out here but not my Mother. She has driven nine miles, bringing a home-cooked dinner for us, cooked as ONLY SHE  can cook! In the backseat of our four door sedan are two big white chipped porcelain dishpans "filled to the gills," with food! Wrapped, warm food! There are Mason quart jars filled to the brim with iced tea or sweet milk and floating with ice cubes! Take your choice! Sitting on the plowed ground in the shade of the car, leaning against a tire,  we are served on big tin pie plates: there is roast and gravy, new potatoes in creamy sauce, buttery stewed squash, black eye peas, pickled cucumber slices, chunks of cantaloupe, and sliced vine-ripened tomatoes! Life is good!

Wait: I forgot  the important thing. She handed each of us a COLD PIECE OF WHITE BREAD!

Oh, no, no, no. my readers, I have played a bad trick on you for illustrative purposes! I apologize! It wasn't white bread she gave us at all! Now you see the importance of CORN BREAD! It makes the meal, doesn't it! Mother handed each one of us some CRISPY CORN BREAD MUFFINS!  Dare I even mention the closing act: peach cobbler?!

It is evident to all: God planned Mothers and Cornbread...ON THE SAME DAY!

There are all kinds of cornbread. Even mixes, which I shun. You can make jalapeño or green chili cornbread; some of these recipes call for sour cream and cream style or whole grain corn, or both. Some call for a considerable amount of sugar, making a kind of semi-dessert muffin. Some (like my Mother's corn bread) is your old deep South "field hand CB"---crispy and crunchy. There is one thing I would put in every recipe---BACON---except I like the bacon crispy and it won't stay crispy.

Old farmers, not wasting anything at hog killing time, used to render the fatty sides of the pig, cut up into chunks---into lard, and then make "cracklin' corn bread" out of the leavings. It was not like grocery store-type cracklin's...it was fatty chunks and I didn't like it. Too fatty.

Here's what you've been waiting for...Mil's famous recipes, One and Two.

                                  DEEP SOUTH FIELD-HAND CORNBREAD

1 1/2 cups of yellow corn meal
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
3 TBS canola oil

Mix dry ingredients, add wet items; oil last
Spray 16 muffin pan with Pam
Bake 400 degrees for about 22 minutes or until very brown and crunchy.
(Cook samples one with butter.)
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                         MIL'S ALL STAR DOWN HOME COUNTRY CORN BREAD

1 1/2 cups yellow corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)*
6 TBS sugar
1TBS baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk
1 cup melted butter
2 large eggs

Canola oil---I put in a little, on general principles, even with the butter.

Combine ingredients; beat liquids until well-blended.

Pour into a well-greased 16 muffin pan.
This recipe will make bigger muffins than recipe # 1.
Bake at 400* for 25 minutes or until brown and crispy.
(*Note: "Real men" do not sift, clarify butter, or separate eggs.)
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                            MIL'S SOUPY PINTO BEANS

2 to 3 cups of Adobe Milling Co. pinto beans (check for rocks)
Ham slices and/or ham bone
Rinse beans deftly five times in fresh water
Put into.pressure cooker and fill with 2/3 water
Bring to boil and "spew." Reduce heat to medium.
Time 55 minutes from first spew, take them up.
Don't mess up the great bean flavor with a lot of spices.
"Don't do nuthin' " except add water; need juicy beans, not dry.
Salt will be needed; do it individually.
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Call Mil when all is ready, and I will come by and check on you, bringing some vine-ripened tomatoes and chunks of cantaloupe. Beverage? Oh let's see: Hmmm. How about a quart of sweet milk in a Mason jar---farm style---with chunks of ice in it! And thanks for asking!

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BY MIL
9/13/12



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